In their last regular season match, the Roger Williams men’s soccer team defeated Curry College 5-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 29th, securing the victory in a commanding manner.
Thirteen minutes into the game, junior Will Schiffer and freshman Tyler Jastrab assisted senior captain John Fogarty, giving the Hawks the lead. Five minutes later, Jastrab was given a penalty kick where he scored, giving the Hawks the lead 2-0 at the half.
“Organizing the team today defensively and keeping them in a positive manner was probably what I did the best today,” said Brandon Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a sophomore defender from Norwalk, Connecticut, majoring in business.
Rodriguez commented on how Coach James Greenslit felt at half time: “In half [Coach Greenslit] was pretty satisfied because we were up 2-0 but we had to keep our foot on the gas, and we ended up scoring three more goals in the second half which was a must win and must need for our team to keep us on confident heading into playoffs.”
Rodriguez remarked on the strategy going into the game was, “To expose them offensively and to keep a clean sheet defensively and just to be a big presence on the field heading into playoffs as we keep the momentum going, I think that was like the biggest strategy heading into today and always staying positive with the team.”
“It starts with just being a team being together that’s our identity, staying focused throughout the 90 minutes and if we do that and we’re positive, that’s our strategy heading into playoffs on Saturday,” Rodriguez said, commenting on how to keep the positive morale going into the playoffs.
On a feed from Fogarty, junior Liam Blaisdell opened the scoring in the second frame, increasing the lead to 3-0. Junior Murphy Malone came next, after captain Andre Caceres provided a feed. Both sophomore Dylan Thomas and senior Jason Salley scored goals, with freshman Louis Hawkins finishing. The score was 5-0 after the three goals in the second half. In the decisive victory, the Hawks had 16 shots (10 on goal) compared to Curry’s three (one on goal).
Chase Steenburgh explains his thoughts on his performance today: “I think I did a good job helping organize the back line at the end of the game. When I was going in, we were already up three, four goals, so it was important to just maintain the clean sheet going into the end of the game and keep things rigid while also trying to score a few more goals.” He continued by describing Coach Greenslit’s feelings at half, “I would say he [Coach Greenslit] was happy with the first 20 minutes of the performance, but later on in the half, we kind of dipped off and started playing to their level, kind of let them back into the game, and he was making the case that this is a team whose season is over, and we’ve got to kind of put the nail in the coffin and really step up and finish the game.”
Going into the game, Steenburgh talked about the strategy: “Their team plays what we know as a 4-4-2 formation. Their wingbacks tend to get very high up the field, leaving a lot of gaps in the channels. We looked to exploit those today. I think we did a good job following our game plan. We got a lot of opportunities and time in those channels and created a lot of service for our team to score goals and create opportunities.”
Additionally, he gave advice on how to have a positive attitude heading into the playoffs, “I think a win like this is the perfect way to [keep the morale up]. Putting five up on the board and getting a lot of guys on the field boosts morale, gets everyone kind of fired up, ready to go, and gives us an opportunity to rest some of our stars before going into playoffs against probably either Gordon or Hartford.”
Steenburgh is a senior defender from Niskayuna, New York, and is majoring in civil engineering.
“I think I did well connecting passes, getting the ball to my teammates, finding them out wide and getting assists to get some goals”, said Caceres. He discussed Coach Greenslit’s feelings at halftime: “He [Coach Greenslit] felt good. We came out with a lot of energy in the first half. We slowed down a little bit in the second half of the first half, but we ended up turning it around in the second half.”
He discussed the strategy going into the game, “Just getting the balls out wide, getting balls in the boxes, and putting the ball in the back of the net.” He also offered how to keep team spirit before the playoffs: “Just keep doing our thing, keep staying positive and working hard and hopefully we’ll make it to our third straight CNE championship.” Caceres is a graduate student defender from Ossining, New York.
With the victory, Roger Williams is now 9-7-3 (4-3-2 CNE) and will wait to see who they play in the Conference of New England matchup in the first round. On Saturday, November 2nd, they will start their playoff campaign.
